Iowa Will Be Presidential Battleground State

Iowa voters are expected to play a major role in picking the next President of the United States.

President Barack Obama is currently on a three-day campaign bus tour of the state and Mitt Romney's new Vice-Presidential pick Paul Ryan stopped at the Iowa State Fair Monday.

CBS News projections show that Romney will likely win South Dakota and Minnesota is leaning toward re-electing Obama, but the projections say Iowa is still considered too close to call. That’s why some experts say the state's six electoral votes could end up deciding the election in November.

Jackie McCarty is a member of the Lyon County, Iowa, Democrats and believes there is so much focus on Iowa because voters are willing to cross party lines.

"To me, it must be that people really do study the candidates, study the issues and won't actually just vote a straight party ticket, they'll look into it," McCarty said.

Cody Hoefert, the chairman of the Lyon County Republican Party, thinks there is so much importance on Iowa that Ryan and other prominent Republicans may make campaign stops in the northwest corner of the state this fall.

"We're fully expecting we're going to have some name recognition candidates up here," Hoefert said.

Romney signs are already dotting the main drag in Rock Rapids. Hoefert says most of the political uncertainty surrounding Iowa dates back to the past few presidential elections.

"If you look back at the previous presidential cycles and the elections, Bush won Iowa in '04, and Obama won Iowa in '08, and the margin was relatively close; so that's why Iowa is a toss up state at this time," Hoefert said.

That's why the local Republican and Democratic parties will be working hard this fall to get voters to the polls and why candidates will continue to come to the state.

"To me, it really shows that people are looking at the candidates seriously and looking at their backgrounds and seeing what they have to give us," McCarty said.